


electricity and ectoplasm don't mix

by ItsyBitsyBatsySpider



Category: Danny Phantom, Shazam! (2019), Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Comfort, Crossover, DC comics - Freeform, Justice League: War - Freeform, Other, Post Movie, dc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-10-25 22:05:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17733509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsyBitsyBatsySpider/pseuds/ItsyBitsyBatsySpider
Summary: When Billy gets a new foster sister, he notices that there's something off about her. When Dani gets caught and placed in a foster home, she notices that there's something off about her new foster brother.





	1. The New Girl

**Author's Note:**

> ive had this fic in my google docs account for MONTHS! When i saw it, i thought i'd edit it and post it on AO3. And man, it needed some editing! Hope you all enjoy!

Billy had seen a hell of a lot of weird things since becoming the Champion of the wizard, Shazam. 

Aliens falling from the sky and invading Earth, men running faster than the speed of sound, mermaids, (even though Victor kept insisting that they were Atlanteans), and dudes dressed up as bats, to list a few. But he had to admit, this took the cake.

By far.

It all started with Billy saving people from a burning building. I know, how cliche is that? But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It’s just as common as having kittens stuck in trees, or saving an old lady from being run over but some bank robbers, or catching said bank robbers. There’s a reason they are cliches. 

So there he was, running in and out of the building trying to grab as many people as he could. The flames licked at the sides of the building, turning a nice, rich brown into a smoldering black. He had just gotten the last of everyone out the door when the second floor collapsed in on itself, caving in the whole structure.

Billy let out a sigh of relief. That was close. He thought.

The tenants of the former building, stood by in shock, looking at the remnants of their home, although a few came out of their stupor and came over to thank the local hero, who blushed and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. 

“It was nothing. I would have done it even if I didn’t have superpowers.” He admitted to the crowd. A few of them chuckled in response to the hero’s comment and a came forward and shook his hand or gave him a quick hug. 

Billy was reluctant to leave them, he was still waiting on the paramedics and authorities to come, but sadly, he was late for dinner and he couldn’t stay any longer than he already had, or else he would’ve been grounded. He still had a curfew to keep, you know. 

He waved goodbye to the citizens of Fawcett and his feet began to slowly leave the ground, the beloved mortal soon flying in the clear blue autumn skies. 

Billy let a smile appear on his face as the cold wind brushed past his cheeks and tugged at his cape. Oh, how the boy loved to fly. He believed it was the best feeling in the entire world and that nothing in the universe would ever compare to it. Billy loved the bright sky above him, the sun casting golden rays everywhere, and the freezing air that swirled around him. It was amazing, to say the least.

But sadly, his flight had to end short. 

Billy touched down a block or two from the Vasquez’s house and made sure nobody was around him when he said the magic word. 

“SHAZAM!” 

And just like that, Fawcett City’s brave, red clad hero turned into thirteen year old Billy Batson. The magic lightening struck down and left smoke billowing through the air and little bits of electricity spasming around Billy. The boy just shrugged it off, picked up the backpack he had cast aside, and strolled onto the sidewalk, acting as if nothing interesting had happened. Billy glanced at the world around him and smiled at the shimmering lights he saw. A side effect of Billy becoming the Champion.

The longer that Billy had been Shazam, the more he became aware of the magic that surrounded him. When he was a normal kid on the streets of Fawcett, everything looked dull and grey to him. Grey buildings, grey sidewalks, dull trees, dull parks, grey-blue skies, dull everything! But maybe that was just the world view of a homeless kid. 

But since then, Billy had begun to notice the magic that was truly there in the world and that surrounded him. He had become more exposed to magic and it’s quirks. 

Like there were a few days when he would see magical creatures walking through Fawcett and nobody would even bat an eye at it, and he would laugh at how absurd it looked. There was one time when he saw a satyr buying a hotdog off of a hotdog vendor and asking for mustard, a eudaemon sitting in a bookstore sipping a cup of coffee, and even a policeman riding a unicorn. 

It was funny to see to say the least. And not only could he see magical creatures, but he could sense the magic and aura of people. It wasn’t very noticeable and it wasn’t a strong ability, it was more like a heightened intuition more than anything. But it sure did come in handy when Billy got into less than preferred situations. He was pretty sure it was an ability given to him from the Wizard.

Billy was just admiring the auras of magic around him when he walked up to his most recent foster home, and his gut clenched.

It was so sudden and unexpected that it threw the teenager off guard, and he struggled not to hold onto the fence for support. There was that sixth sense again, saying that there was something magical inside. Maybe something malevolent. 

Billy tensed and prepared to say the word if he needed to, as he reached for the door handle and turned it.

He walked inside, calling out the usual “I’m home!” and was met with Mrs. Vasquez’s cheerful voice. 

“Oh, you’re home! Good! Billy, why don’t you come into the living room and come meet our new guest?” 

Still wary, Billy set down his backpack and walked into the living room to see Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez sitting next to a woman in a suit and a young girl about his age looking at him strangely. The woman was in a neat black pantsuit and her hair was up in a bun and a badge clipped to her blazer.

A social worker. 

Billy felt a rock form in his stomach. This couldn’t be good. 

Meanwhile the girl just kept looking at him, as if she was trying to decipher something about Billy.She wasn’t as clean looking as the social worker, what with her ratty blue sweatshirt, dirt covered red shorts, and a beanie with holes in it. 

Billy knew the look well. This girl was just on the streets. The boy sighed and let his shoulders sag, she had probably gotten sucked into the foster system just as he had, and the social worker was here to drop her off until they found her files or a new home to go to. 

“Billy, I’d like you to meet Danielle. She’ll be staying here for a few days until Ms. Turner can find her a proper home.” 

Billy smirked inwardly. ‘Called it.’ he thought. 

“Dani.” the girl said. The adults in the room looked at the said girl in shock. “Sorry, what?” The social worker asked. Dani turned her gaze away from Billy and looked at Ms. Turner directly. Billy assumed that this was the first time she had spoken in a while. 

“My name’s Dani. With an ‘i’. Not Danielle.” that said she turned her attention back to Billy. It was starting to make him uncomfortable. 

“Well, alright then, this is Dani. Billy, do you wanna say something to welcome her?” 

“No, not really.” he said shrugging. 

“Billy.” Mrs. Vasquez lightly scolded. Dani let a smirk escape her lips. “It would be polite.”

Billy crossed his arms and let his sassy/rudeness loose. “Well too bad that’s not in my personality.” The social worker looked offended and the Vasquez’s looked embarrassed. His work here was done. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have homework to do.” He grabbed his backpack and headed upstairs to his shared room. 

Dani turned her attention to the Vasquez’s and spoke, “I like him.” 

……..

Dani was disappointed in herself. 

How could she have gotten caught so easily! It was an embarrassment to her ghost status and stealth abilities, and it all started with her dining and dashing. Long story short, she started to get really hungry after five days of eating nothing, and being half ghost burned lots of calories. So what was the harm in her eating a little bit and then turning invisible and leave?

Except she didn’t eat a little bit. 

And she didn’t turn invisible.

After that whole buffet she ate, the manager of the diner started pestering her about the bill and she knew she couldn’t turn invisible with witnesses. Then the manager grabbed her when she tried to run, called the police, and everything became a blur after that. Then before she knew it, she was sitting on a nice couch in the Vasquez residence with a damn social worker of all people discussing housing and what they were gonna do with her. 

She never even got a chance to slip away, and had settled for glaring out the window, watching the cars go by. It was all pretty boring until Dani got a tingly feeling down her spine, like electricity, and a breath of gold escaped her mouth. She clamped her mouth shut and glanced at the adults in the room. Luckily nobody noticed. And then the front door opened and in came the boy who she’d be sharing a house with. 

“I’m home!” he called out as he threw his backpack onto the ground.

“Billy! Why don’t you come into the living room and meet our new guest?” Mrs. Vasquez said. 

Dani scoffed internally at the sound of her being a guest when the boy, Billy, entered the room. He looked pretty similar to her, with black hair and blue eyes, and sported a red hoodie and a football jersey underneath it and blue jeans with red sneakers. She was surprised at how much they looked alike. They could’ve easily passed as brother and sister.

And once Dani saw him, she had this weird sense about him, like there was more to him than what meets the eye. As if he was more powerful than he was letting on. And she knew this because it was the exact same thing she and her cousin Danny did all the time. 

The adults and their talking just became white noise to her as she kept looking at the boy, trying to figure out what made him so special. She heard the social worker, Ms. Turner, call her   
“Danielle”, and she had to speak up and correct her. The only person who called her “Danielle” was Vlad, and she wanted nothing to do with him or anything related to that monster. 

She realized that that was the first time she spoke since the police station. 

“Well, alright then, this is Dani. Billy, do you wanna say something to welcome her?”

“No, not really.” the boy said nonchalantly. 

“Billy.” Mrs. Vasquez scolded. Dani smirked. “It would be polite.”

“Well too bad that’s not in my personality.”

Billy then said something about doing homework, and he took his bag and went upstairs. 

“I like him.” She said. 

………..

Dinner that night was mac and cheese.

Apparently, a thing the family did was each kid got to choose what they wanted for dinner once a week and this time it was a girl named Darla’s turn to choose dinner, and she thought that mac and cheese would be a good idea since it was one of the Vasquez’s best dishes. So here was Billy and a boy named Freddy, setting the table while Darla and Mr. Vasquez worked on the cheesy pasta. And Mrs. Vasquez was upstairs trying to help Dani find something else to wear since her current clothes were practically dirt and rags. 

“Dinner’s ready!” Darla announced proudly, placing the mac and cheese on the table, displaying the gooey dish with a flourish of her hand. Freddy smiled at her enthusiasm and Billy smirked at her antics. No matter how grumpy Billy was with everyone, he could never be grumpy with Darla. She was just like a pure ray of sunshine that could never be tainted, and even though Billy would never admit it, he would do anything to protect her. She was like a sister to him just as much as Freddy was a brother to him. 

But he’d never tell anyone, not even Victor, he had a reputation to uphold. 

Footsteps thudded down the stairs and Dani appeared, her hair damp from a shower and she was wearing fresh clothes. There was a big grin on her face and Billy wondered just how long she had worn those old clothes. She had a white sweatshirt that said “LEGEND” and a pair of new leggings on. 

“What’s for dinner? I’m starving!” Dani asked.   
“Mac and cheese!” Freddy said. 

“Yes! I love mac and cheese!” The girl was in a much better mood than she was earlier. 

“Well then you’re gonna love this. Mr. Vasquez makes the BEST mac and cheese in the whole world. Trust me.”

“Nice. And I’m sorry but I don’t think I got your name.”

“Oh right, I’m Freddy. Nice to meet you.” he said sticking out his hand to Dani for her to shake.  
“Likewise.” she said taking his hand. 

“And I’m Darla!” the cocoa-skinned girl said. 

“Good to meet you Darla.”

“And you’ve already met Billy. He’s the broody one out of all of us.” Freddy said in a stage whisper.

“I’m not broody!” Billy protested. Darla nodded her head behind him. Dani smiled.

“Alright kids, sit down. It’s time to eat.” Mr. Vasquez said.   
Mrs. Vasquez, Freddy, Darla, and Billy all sat down in their respective places while Dani just stood awkwardly to the side. She had never done this before in the year she had been alive. She never did it with Danny’s family, or with Vlad, and she’d been way too busy traveling the world that she never had the chance to actually be a part of something like this. 

“C’mon Dani. Sit next to Billy.” Darla said. 

Dani rubbed the back of her neck and shuffled over to the empty seat next to Billy. He gave her a strange look. Dani was just about to reach for the serving spoon, when everyone at the table took each other’s hands. Billy offered his hand to her, which she was tentative to take, and Mrs. Vasquez, who was next to her, took her other hand. 

“Dear Lord,” Mr. Vasquez started, “Thank you for this wonderful day and bringing Dani to us, and bless this food to our bodies. Amen.”

“Amen.” everyone else chorused after him. Dani stayed silent and looked at everybody funny as they each took turns filling up their plates. Dani had never considered herself religious, thanks to the fact that she was both a ghost and knew what the afterlife was, but she was also curious about what being a part of something like that was like. And now she knew. It was weird.

“So, Dani,” Mr. Vasquez began, “Where were you before you came here?” 

“Uhm, I was, in uh,” She stammered. Struggling to come up with a believable lie. Cause she couldn’t just say that she spent the past two weeks flying around France. 

“Central. Central City.” 

Mr. Vasquez’s eyebrows rose. “Wow, you’re sure a far ways from there then.”   
‘Is that far?’ Dani wondered. Distance just became a word to her after a while. 

“Yeah, I am.” 

“Woah! Cool! Does that mean you saw the Flash?” Darla asked innocently. Dani shrugged as it was her turn to dish up her plate. The name sounded familiar to her, but she wasn’t sure why.   
“Uhm, no I didn’t. Sorry.”

Darla seemed to deflate a little, but it didn’t last long. 

“Where else have you been?” Freddy asked. 

“All over.” Dani said. “Kind of hard to keep track of everywhere I’ve been.”   
Freddy nodded, accepting the answer. 

“Have you ever seen a superhero?” Billy asked. Dani smirked at the question. If only he knew how ironic that question was. 

“Oh yeah, i’ve definitely seen my share of superheroes. One even saved my life.” She said before she could shut her big mouth. 

Suddenly Darla and Freddy were asking question after question, wanting to know every detail about her rescue; Dani couldn’t even get a word in. Meanwhile, Billy stayed silent the entire time. Did he rescue her? He couldn’t remember everybody he saved, but he racked his brain trying to remember if he did or did not.

“Freddy! Darla!” Mrs. Vasquez shouted. Effectively shutting them up. “If Dani doesn’t want to talk about it, then don’t ask.”   
“Sorry.”  
“Sorry, Dani.” they both said. Dani smiled sadly. 

“It’s okay. You each get one question about it though. I won’t leave you hanging.” The foster siblings brightened up and Darla was the first to ask her question.   
“Who saved you?” 

Billy held his breath and Dani kept smiling sadly. “It was a small town hero, I doubt you guys have even heard of him, but he goes by Phantom. He was the one to save my life.” Darla’s face said it all. Even Billy was confused. He’d never heard of a hero named Phantom before, and he was on the Justice League. Wasn’t it kind of his job to learn more about other superhuman/alien beings? He’ll have to ask Victor to research him later. 

“What did he save you from?” Freddy asked. 

Dani fell silent. She couldn’t tell them the truth. What was she supposed to say? ‘Oh I was destabilizing and turning into a pile of goo in the basement of a psychopath because I’m Phantom’s clone and he sprayed me with some magical Febreeze and saved my life. Crazy right?’ 

“Uhhhmm, I’d rather not say.” she ended up saying. 

“Oh okay. Then, what can he do? What are his powers?” 

Dani smiled. “Well, he can fly, turn invisible, walk through walls, and he has these cool lasers called ecto-blasts. He shoots them out of his hands and eyes. It’s pretty cool!” 

“He sounds awesome!” 

“Yeah, he’s super cool!” 

“So he’s like a mix of Martian Manhunter and Superman?”

A flicker of confusion flashed across Dani’s face. “Uh, I guess? To be honest, i don’t pay a whole of a lot attention to the Justice League. I do like Batman though. He seems awesome. Also Wonder Woman.” 

Darla got a look on her face that Dani didn’t know how to interpret, before she asked. “What do you think of Shazam?”

Billy tensed up and sent a glare at Darla. 

“Who?”

Freddy choked on his water. The table was silent. “You’re kidding right?” He said after regaining his bearings.   
“You don’t know who Shazam is?” Mrs. Vasquez asked, a bit baffled, which confused Dani.

“No. Sorry. Who is he?” 

At the question Billy, glanced down at his plate and started playing with his food absentmindedly. He hadn’t said a word the whole dinner and by now, he decided he wasn’t going to. 

“Shazam is Fawcett City’s superhero. I’m sure you’ve seen him around while you were here. He always makes an appearance at least once a day.” Freddy said. He glanced at Billy quickly before turning back to Dani. “Maybe you just need to see a picture of him. Hold on, I’ll pull up a picture of him real quick” 

Mr. Vasquez held up a finger. “Uh. Nuh uh. No phone’s at the table. You know the rules Freddy. Put it away.” He said curtly. Freddy deflated, pocketing the phone and turning back to his plate of pasta.   
“You can show her later. Now Billy, Freddy, Darla, how was school today. Learn anything new?”  
………….

“Sorry Billy.” Freddy whispered to his foster brother after dinner was finished. Said boy shrugged. 

“It’s okay Freddy. Don’t apologize.” They arrived at their shared bedroom and Freddy closed the door behind them.

“I’m gonna go do my ‘homework’. Billy said as he opened up the window and took off it’s screen.  
“Okay, have fun and tell Victor ‘Hi’ for me, and don’t die. Also, make sure you’re farther away from the house this time. Last night you were sloppy. I could hear you say ‘Shazam.’ I saw the smoke.”

Billy nodded and gave Freddy a salute. “Will do.” he crept out of the window and jumped off of the roof onto the grass. Jogging away from the house until he was sure nobody he knew would hear him, he shouted the name of the Wizard and flew off into the night.   
…………..

“So, you’re saying that this chick, who has met superheroes before, has absolutely no idea who Shazam is?” Victor asked as he tossed Billy a football. Monitor duty was boring as ever, so of course Billy had nagged Victor into tossing a football with him.   
“Yeah! Ugh, it made dinner so awkward! Like, how can she not have heard about me? I’m one of the Justice League!” 

He tossed the ball back to Victor.  
“Well maybe she’s been a bit too busy to research superheroes. You said that she traveled a lot. Maybe she just didn’t have the time. Not to mention she was also on the street. So cut her some slack.” 

The ball flew through the air again. 

“Yeah, I know. You’re right.” 

They continued to throw the ball back and forth between them, making light conversation, until a rapid beeping came from the computer and they had to put the football down. Gunshots had been heard in downtown Fawcett.  
“Ready to do some superheroing?” Billy said with a cheesy grin on his face as his feet rose from the ground. 

The cyborg joined his friend in the air. “I don’t even think that’s an actual word.”   
………….

Dani had to admit, this had been a good day. 

It started off terrible, with her getting caught by the police and getting placed in a home by a social worker, but in the end it was good. She got to have a home cooked meal, a place to sleep, fresh clothes, a full stomach, a hot shower, and a chance to actually live in a home. It was something she never truly got a chance to try.

Which is why what she was about to do that much harder. 

She watched the digital clock next to her bed tick till one in the morning, before she sat up, cringing at the rustling of the sheets. She glanced at the bed next to her, where Darla slept, and released a breath of relief when she saw she didn’t wake up. 

Tapping into her core, Dani began to float from her bed. She threw off the sheets and began to drift toward the door. She wasn’t going to leave without food and water and some clean clothes. 

She hated having to do this, but she knew she had to. There weren’t any records of her anywhere. No medical, dental, educational, or even a birth certificate of her. So when the social worker came back in a day or two with all these questions Dani couldn’t answer…

Well, it just wouldn’t end well. 

She had found an empty backpack and had begun to pack it with dry snacks and water bottles. Dani thought about taking some money, but she decided against it. Knowing that the family needed it more than she did. Once she was finished packing and had stuffed her pajamas in the bag, wearing the sweatshirt and leggings once again, she crept over to her and Darla’s bedroom and floated through the door and wall onto the roof. Turning tangible, she landed on the roof and shrugged the backpack onto her shoulders. She glanced down at the house one last time before turning around and walking to the edge of the roof. 

But when she turned around, she gasped.

Dani didn’t even think about it at the time, but the Vasquez’s house was far away from the city, so that when night came, there was both hundreds of stars out and there was the glittering skyline.

This is what Dani saw. The stars twinkling in the sky and the city shimmering in all of its lights. It was two of Dani’s favorite things at one time. 

‘Well, what’s the rush? As long as I’m gone before morning, everything will be fine.’ the ghost girl thought.

A wry grin on her face, Dani when over to the edge and sat down. Her legs swinging back and forth as she gazed at the stars in the sky and the stars on Earth. 

‘Well, since I’m out here, I might as well have one of the snacks I packed.’ she thought to herself; knowing full well that she was just coming up with excuses to stay longer at the foster home. 

Dani pulled out a granola bar and started munching on it while the stars shined and the breeze wrapped around her. And since it was hours before the sun rose, Dani had no fear of someone spotting her sitting up on the roof, stargazing. Or at least she thought. A tingle of electricity ran down her spine and her ghost sense went off. Instead it was gold instead of the normal blue.

“What are you doing?” a voice asked behind her. 

Dani yelped in surprise and dropped her granola bar as she whipped around to see who had spoken. And to her surprise, it wasn’t a normal person. Nope. It was man clad in a red and gold suit with a lightning bolt on his chest and a white cape billowing behind him as he floated high above the ground. The cape had a hood on it, which was pulled over the stranger’s face, hiding his features from Dani’s view and making her feel uneasy. But this wasn’t the strangest thing to happen to Dani. She had half expected for him to start attacking her already, but when he didn’t it confused the ghost girl.

“Sorry?” she asked. 

“What are you doing up here? It’s not safe standing on roofs when there’s no one to look out for you.” the mysterious man stated. Dani scoffed. 

“Yeah, well I can take care of myself. Don’t need a man in a costume and cape to come to my rescue.”   
The man crossed his arms and Dani felt like he was glaring at her.   
“So who are you? Don’t think I’ve heard of you before.” she said to him. Hoping to keep things light. 

“The name’s Shazam. And you are?”

It all clicked into place for Dani now, and a understanding smile made its way onto her face.   
“Ooooohh okay. That all makes sense now. You’re Fawcett City’s own personal hero, right? Yeah, I’ve heard some good stuff about you. Probably should’ve figured it out already, but you know. They don’t call me “clueless” for nothing.” Dani knew that last part wasn’t true, but she was cloned from someone who was clueless, so it made sense that she got the misfortune of getting that quality from Danny as well. 

“Who calls you “clueless”?” Shazam asked as he touched down on the roof.

“Oh you know, people.” 

The superhero sat down next to her and she could feel him looking at her funny. 

“What?” she asked. 

“You seem much too chill to be talking to a superhero right now.” he said. Dani laughed. 

“Oh man, if only you knew!” 

“Well I’m just saying,” Shazam threw his hood down, revealing neat jet black hair and familiar baby blue eyes. “Not everyone is as chill as you are when having a conversation with a superpowered human being.” 

Dani stopped laughing and looked at Shazam. He seemed familiar to her, but she didn’t know why he did. They had only just met. Hadn’t they? 

“Yeah, you’re right. Not everyone is chill when talking to a superhero. But then again there are the exceptions.” 

“You mean you?”

Dani shrugged and Shazam sighed. “You know you still didn’t tell me what you’re doing up here.” He said to her. 

“Can’t a girl just sit and stargaze on her roof?” 

“With a bag full of food and water and fully dressed? No. I don’t think so. That sounds like running away to me.” 

Dani huffed and turned to the bag. It clearly looked like she was running away, which she was. She wasn’t even going to deny it. 

“Yeah, I was.” This got the hero’s attention. 

“Why? Do you not like it here? Was dinner too awkward?” He asked all of a sudden. Dani glanced up the red clad hero and looked at him funny. He seemed to realize what he had said, seeing as how he had instantly shut up. Then it began to make sense. Dinner… the gold ghost sense… the familiarity of a superhero she had never met before…

She had to admit, it was a good disguise. Even for her. Dani smiled and turned back to her bag and pulled out another granola bar and offered it to Shazam. A night of hero work was always exhausting, especially for a kid her age. 

He glanced down at the bar and took it gingerly from her hand. “Thanks.” he mumbled. 

“No problem. And no, dinner wasn’t awkward. In fact it was fun. I’ve never had a home cooked meal before. Or sat down at a table with a family. Or said grace. Or even talked about my day.” Dani glanced down at the ground far below her, and she knew that it would be a good memory for her to keep. 

“What? Are you serious?” Shazam said in shock. The girl nodded and turned her attention back to the sky. 

“You’ve never had any of that before?” 

“Nope. But it’s okay, my life isn’t absolutely terrible and miserable. Although I do wish I can do this every night. It’d be nice.” 

“So why not?” 

Dani stayed silent, not answering the hero’s answer, and just gazed at the city lights. 

“Because I can’t.” 

There was a finality in her voice, that let Shazam know that she was serious and that nothing would change her mind. But he had to try, didn’t he? To convince her to stay?  
“Well, as cryptic as that sounds, I’m sure the people living here won’t mind having you around. Living in a home full of people who care about you isn’t all that bad. And trust me, I would know.” 

A knowing smile graced on Dani’s face and Shazam noted that she smiled a lot, although they were all different from each other and meant different things.

“I believe you. But it’s not a matter of whether or not I want to stay, but that I can’t. If I do, something bad will happen, and I don’t want that. These people don’t deserve that. They’re a good family and I don’t know if even I deserve to be blessed with them. It’s just all a mess.” She admitted to the hero before her. He looked at her with understanding in his eyes, but didn’t say a word. It was quiet between the two until the sky started to turn grey and the lights of the city began to turn off. Dawn was nearly here and neither of them had noticed the time fly by. 

“Well,” Shazam started out, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t stay. But I think you should give these people another chance. I know it’s not them and it’s you and all of that cliche stuff, but trust me on this. They are willing to do anything to help you and they care. They care a lot. It’s not some act they put. It’ll be worth while I can promise that. And hey, you’ll get to live with a family more. More dinners, more domestic small talk, more home cooked meals, mo-”  
“More showers, more clean clothes, more love, more chances... “ Dani finished. She glanced at the backpack once again and then at the rising sun. 

“And hey, if it doesn’t work out. You can always run away another day.” Shazam said lightly. Dani breathed a laugh. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Maybe I can stay a few more days. Till the social worker comes back anyway. Sound good to you?” 

“Yeah.” Shazam said. He didn’t notice the vague slip up he did, but Dani did, and she smiled.   
“Right then. Should probably head back inside and unpack before everyone wakes up and notices.” 

“Yep, totally.” 

“And by the way? Thanks, Billy.”

Billy hummed. “You’re welcome.”  
…  
…  
…  
“Wait.”


	2. Locked Windows and Phone Calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just to be clear of any confusion, both Dani, Billy, and Freddy are 13, and Darla is 10. Dani has been traveling the world for months and she was "born" roughly a year and a half ago. This is the universe of Justice League: War and Justice League: Throne of Atlantis. It takes place after the last movie.  
> It also takes place in the middle of/after season 3 of Danny Phantom, but PP isn't canon. Obviously. 
> 
> Also, if it seems like Billy is a little OOC, i kind of wanted to mix the two versions of him, the soft bean boi from Return of Black Adam and the sarcastic little shit from JL: War. I hope I get it right!

“What!?” Billy exclaimed, “How on earth did you figure it out?” The ghost girl before him shrugged and smirked. 

“Well, considering the fact that you mentioned dinner, look exactly like an older version of yourself, slipped up multiple times during our conversation, and somehow was able to come to this house for no suitable reason other than you living here? It wasn’t too big of a stretch.”  
Billy rubbed his hands together nervously. “But, I could have been patrolling the area? Did you think of that?”

“Eh, one of two options. Plus you made it known that you knew me. As vague as the slip up was.”

“Oh, okay.”

Dani stood up on the roof crossing her arms, “So how do you do it? The aging thing I mean? It’s a pretty good disguise but it’s gotta be complicated right?” 

Billy glanced away and his eyes caught the rising sun and greying sky. Just now realizing how early it was and that if he didn’t change back soon it would spell trouble for the both of them.  
“Uhm uh, it’s simple really.” He turned back to the girl who was looking at him expectantly. 

“SHAZAM!” the red hero shouted to the sky. 

In a flash of golden lightning, the intimidating hero was now a timid looking boy with a familiar jersey and sweater. 

The lightning transformation had certainly startled Dani, and seeing it strike her new foster brother and turn him from an adult into a kid again was beyond shocking. It was ludicrous. Not too unlike watching someone alive turn into a half-dead ghost who could float and walk through walls. 

But that was different. Maybe. 

the cloned halfa stood, mouth agape, staring at Billy, not knowing how to react to something so unexpected. She knew that the transformation had to look somewhat magical and bizarre, but she didn’t think that a FREAKING LIGHTNING BOLT would come SHOOTING OUT OF THE SKY AND HIT HIM! 

“Look, I’ll explain everything later! But we should really get going. If the Vasquez’s find us both out of bed, they’ll think we ran away and we’ll get in BIG trouble. Trust me, I’ve done it before.” the raven-haired boy proceeded to walk towards his bedroom window and gestured for Dani to follow him. 

“Come on, we gotta hurry. And be quiet.” 

The still shocked Dani grabbed her backpack and crept across the roof behind Billy before making a face. “Seriously!?” She whisper-screamed. “Be quiet! You just summoned a freaking lightning bolt out of NOWHERE and it practically HIT the roof! And you’re telling ME to be quiet! What the hell, Billy!” 

Billy put his hands up like he was surrendering. “Okay okay, fine! I get what you’re saying. Just don’t make a lot of noise.” he tried to open the window from the outside when he found out that it was still locked. Damn, Freddy and his old habits of locking the window. Billy saw the groggy boy lift his head from his pillow when he knocked on the pane’s glass and glance at them with tired eyes. Giving Billy a hand gesture that the Vasquez’s would not approve of, he got up, grabbed one of his crutches and unlocked the window’s latch. 

Billy jumped through his window. 

Dani scoffed. “Yeah, sure.” she mumbled, “little asshole summons a freaking lightning bolt and he’s telling me to be quiet. A lightning bolt! And me of all people. Honestly.” 

“I can hear you.” 

“Oh, shut up lightning boy.” 

The ghost crawled through the window and landed on one of the beds, probably Billy’s seeing as how it wasn’t slept in, and rolled off of the mattress. Landing noiselessly on her feet. 

She saw Billy next to Freddy, who was just waking up from his sleep, and saw Billy talking in whispers to Freddy. The boy saw Dani come in and walked up to her.

“Listen, you can’t say anything. Nobody else knows about this except for a few other people and I don’t know what I’d do if this got out. Can you promise me you won’t say a word?” 

The clone looked into Billy’s blue eyes and in that moment she saw something that reminded her very strongly of her cousin. 

Fear. 

Of course, it was clouded with seriousness and toughness and all of those kind of emotions, but they were just facades. What was truly underneath all of those emotions was fear. Because a random girl, whom Billy had only known for a day, had come into his home and figured out a huge secret of his, one that he only shared with very few trusted people; and he was afraid that she was going to go to the press or police and tell them that their favorite superhero was actually a kid in the foster system. 

He was afraid of the consequences that him being a kid would bring and Dani knew the feeling all too well. She knew what is was like to truly hide herself and trust a few close friends with her secret identity. And she wondered how she would feel if a stranger had suddenly figured out she was half-ghost or a clone of the great Phantom, and she agreed that she too would be afraid of what the person would do with the information. 

She placed her hand on Billy’s shoulder and gave him the most sincerest look she could muster. 

“I promise I won’t say anything.” 

Billy’s shoulders slumped and he gave a visible sigh of relief. “Thanks, Dani.”

“No, problem. But I’m still gonna need an explanation as to what the hell is going on.”

“Right, right of course.” The sound of shuffling pots greeted the hero and the halfa's ears, meaning that the Vasquez’s were up and probably making breakfast. “But, maybe after school?” Billy asked hopefully. 

Dani took her hand off of Billy’s shoulder and shrugged. “Sure, works for me. I can wait till your done with school.” 

“Awesome, thanks. Now you should probably go unpack before somebody notices.” 

Dani winced at the sentence, still slightly disappointed with herself at having nearly run away from such a nice home. “Yeah you’re right, I probably should.” She slung the backpack off of her shoulder and trudged to the room door, almost to the exit before Billy called behind her.

“And Dani?” 

Said girl turned around, her hair loosely swinging around as she did so. “Yeah, Billy?” the boy was rubbing his hands again, a nervous habit that Dani mentally noted. “Thanks again for not saying anything. You have no idea how much it means to me.” A sly, knowing smile spread across the girl’s face. 

“Oh, I have an idea.”  
…………..

After breakfast, which was consisted of vanilla waffles and fruit slices and tasted like heaven to Dani, Billy, Freddy, and Darla got their school gear together and headed out for the day. 

“See you later Dani! Bye, Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez!” Darla shouted as she left the house. Choruses of goodbyes following behind her. Freddy waved behind him with one of his available hands and Billy gave a nod as they all exited the house, leaving Dani behind with the Vasquez’s. 

“Oh, and Billy! Remember to walk Freddy and Darla home after school!”

“Yeah!” his faint voice called out from beyond the door. A smile appeared on Mrs. Vasquez’s face as she started to pile up the dirty dishes from the table. 

“So, Dani, I was thinking that we go shopping today. Get you a few more clothes and maybe some school supplies. Because if you’re going to be staying here you are going to have to have more than just one outfit and no school stuff.” Mrs. Vasquez said. 

 

Dani gulped down the last of her waffle. “What?” she said. “Seriously?”  
The woman nodded her head. “Well of course! I know that you were living on the streets, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a chance at an education and some clean clothes. You’re in our home now.” 

Dani smiled. “That’s very kind of you Mrs. Vasquez, but we don’t have to go shopping today.” 

Mrs. Vasquez shook her head. “No, I insist. A teenage girl should at least have five outfits to choose from.” the raven-haired ghost opened her mouth to refuse. “And it’s not up for debate, we’re going shopping today.” 

“And Dani,” Mr. Vasquez said as he put down his newspaper, seriously, who reads newspapers anymore? “You can call us Rosa and Victor. You don’t have to always call us Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez.” 

Dani glanced down at her empty plate, a small smile on her lips. “Thanks Mr. Vasquez, but I think I’ll stick with calling you Mr. and Mrs. if you don’t mind.” 

Victor gave her a nod of acknowledgement and continued to read his paper. 

“When you’re done with breakfast, I’d like you to go change into some clothes. We have a tiring day ahead of us, and we might as well get it all over with!” Mrs. Vasquez said as she continued to clear the table. “Victor will you help me with the dishes?” 

Mr. Vasquez looked up and set his paper down. “Sure thing honey.” 

Dani watched in delight as they began to clean the dishes and utensils together, loving the domesticity of it. She plucked another waffle from the serving plate and began to wolf it down before heading upstairs and getting ready. She took a brief shower and after drying herself off put on the clothes from yesterday, the white sweatshirt and black leggings. Mrs. Vasquez lent her a pair of heeled boots, once she found out that they were the same size, and by the time that Dani put her hair into it’s signature ponytail, Mrs. Vasquez was calling for her and climbing into the car.  
…………….

Dani had never considered herself one for malls. Or shopping. Or girly stuff. The only thing she enjoyed at malls was the movie theater and skating shops. And maybe the food court. But other than that, ehh.

Maybe it was the fact that she was cloned from a boy or maybe it was the fact that she just wasn’t one of those girls. But either way, shopping just wasn’t her thing. 

So when she told Mrs. Vasquez that she had never gone shopping for fun before, it elicited a long, shocked gasp. The woman shook her head and said “No. We aren’t having any of that.” and began to lead Dani toward random stores. 

The first store they entered, there were lots of girly flowery stuff, not the halfa's type at all.

“Pick whatever you want.” Mrs. Vasquez said. But when Dani didn’t pick anything or like any of the clothes that Rosa picked out, Mrs. Vasquez had the sense to ask her the real question. 

“What kind of clothes do you like? What stores would you go to?” and it became a lot easier from there. They went to a store that had a bunch of sweaters and hats and Dani just TOOK OFF. She kept picking up different jackets and hoodies and she loved the soft beanies in the corner of the store. She went to the dressing room more than twice, her arms full of multiple clothing items and she had to get pulled back more than once because she kept crossing the dressing room limit. Dani ended up getting some shorts, leggings, a couple tshirts, and a few hoodies. The hoodie she loved the most was a black and white jacket with green strings and accents. Rosa didn’t know why she was so determined to get it, but she just rounded it up to being the teenager's favorite colors. 

Then they went to a different store and began looking for shoes for Dani. She had no interest in the heels or tall boots or sandals, but she did gravitate towards the converse and sneakers and combat boots. Luckily, the store was having a sale on sneakers and they were able to get two pairs for the young girl. 

Happy to say that she was ecstatic. 

It had been a year since she had a new pair of shoes and Dani was happy that she finally got some new ones. Her old pair were starting to feel tight on her toes and she didn’t think she would have gone long on the streets before “permanently borrowing” a new pair. 

They were heading towards the food court, all of their shopping complete, when Mrs. Vasquez saw something and abruptly stopped. Dani turned around to see what had halted Mrs. Vasquez and saw that she was looking at an electronics store. 

“Dani, come on! I want to check something in here.” she said as she began walking towards the store’s entrance. Dani followed behind her, shuffling the shopping bags around, a confused look on her face. What would she need to get at an electronics store?

As it turns out, a burner phone. 

“Now, this is for emergencies only. Do not use this unless you have too. Billy, Freddy, and Darla, all have one like this.” She opened up the box the burner was in and began to type something inside of it. “Here are me and Victor’s numbers. If you’re ever in a rough spot or need something, don’t hesitate to call us. Okay?” 

The young girl bobbed her head up and down. “Okay, Mrs. Vasquez.” she took the phone from Mrs. Vasquez and fingered it gently. It was a simple flip phone, a bit old school to any other kid besides Dani, but to her it was more valuable than anyone would have thought. She had never really gotten a phone before. Vlad never even thought about the idea of her having her own phone and she couldn’t simply jump onto Danny’s family plan. His parents didn’t even know she existed! Tucker had offered to lend her one of his spare phones, but it was still the same problem. His parents would have noticed something on their phone bill. Plus, neither of their families had international plans, so it wouldn’t have worked anyway. 

So when Mrs. Vasquez gave Dani the burner phone, she began to feel warm inside. Her chest turned all fuzzy and her core began to heat up. Because this woman who had taken Dani in, despite her not wanting to live with her, had shown her kindness and decided to spend her whole day and her money to make sure that she had all of these things that she didn’t have before. It was a nice feeling. 

“Thank you so much.” Dani said quietly. Mrs. Vasquez gave the raven-haired girl a soft smile. 

“You’re welcome Dani. Now how about we get some food. We still have school shopping to do.” 

Dani beamed. “Yes, of course!”  
……………….

While Mrs. Vasquez was off getting some Chinese food for the two of them, Dani pulled out her new burner phone and typed in a new number. She had something urgent to discuss with someone, and Dani couldn’t think of anybody else who could help. 

The phone rang a couple of times, but nobody picked up. 

“Ugh, come on. Pick up your phone you stupid hoe.” she said lovingly into the phone as she dialed again. “You’re like on it all the time.” 

It rang a few more times before she heard a click on the receiver.

“Hello?” a familiar voice said. 

“Tucker, hey. I need your help.” 

“Dani! What on earth! How did you find a phone? Is this a payphone?” 

 

“No, chill Tucker. I doubt that payphones even exist anymore. But if they do I’ll let you know.”  
Tucker scoffed over the line. “Well, what’s up? How’s travel life doing for you so far?” 

Dani fidgeted in her seat. “Uhm yeah about that,” She heard Tucker gasp over the phone, his voice turning panicky. 

“Oh no Dani! You got put in jail didn’t you!? This is your one call isn’t it! Oh man i should’ve called it! I knew I should’ve given you that phone. Don’t worry Dani I’ll get Danny! He can help!!” 

“No! No Tucker, I’m not in jail, but I am in a tight spot.”

“Oh thank goodness.” there was a pause, “About the “not in jail” part I mean, not the “tight spot” part.” 

“Yeah Tucker, I get it, just calm down for a second will you?” Dani sighed, trying not to be annoyed. “Listen, I got caught by the police-”

“I KNEW IT!” 

“TUCKER!” 

“SORRY!” 

The halfa groaned, took a deep breath, and began to tell Tucker what had happened. 

“I got caught by the police and placed in a foster home, temporarily. The social worker who was assigned to me is looking for my files. But the problem is that-”

“You don’t have any files.” Tucker finished. 

“Exactly. Now do you think you could forge some digital documents for me? Nothing too serious, but some cover work?”

“Uhhm, maybe? I mean I know that I’m skilled,” 

“So humble.”

“-but it will only work as long as the social worker doesn’t look too much into it.” 

Dani was quiet for a second. “I know.” she whispered into the phone. 

“So.... do you still want me to do it?” The question was there in the undertones of Tucker’s voice. “Do you understand what you’re doing and what will happen if it fails?” 

Dani thought about this for a moment, thinking about the consequences if it did work and if it didn’t. 

It could either end well, with Dani living in a nice foster home for a long time, or with social workers and authorities coming and asking her why they have no record of her ever existing and a heck load of trouble. Was it really worth all of this trouble? Was having a caring family and a roof over her head and home cooked food really so tempting to her that she was going to risk being on the government’s radar? She had been just fine on her own until now, but even she couldn’t resist the idea of settling down somewhere and having someone care for her like their own daughter. 

She knew that Danny and Jazz would love her like a sister if she ever decided to go back to Amity Park. But she also knew that if she were to show up out of nowhere and arrive on the Fenton’s doorstop with no good explanation of who and what she was, then Danny and Jazz would have to lie to their parents every day. Or worse, expose Danny’s secret. 

And Dani would never do that to him. 

No, it was better if she just stayed away. It would be safer for him. 

But she still couldn’t deny the allure of having a family. A mother, a father, a sister, and a few brothers. And the Vasquez’s gave that to her. 

A steely look in Dani’s eyes, she took a deep breath and spoke into the phone. “Yes, do it.” 

There was a pause and Dani thought that she could hear a slight sigh coming from the other end. “Okay, then, I’ll get on that. I’ll call you when it’s done. Just give me a few hours. If I can hack into the Axiom Labs security and make it out without setting off any of their alarms, then I can certainly come up with a few documents.” 

Dani let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “Oh my gosh, thank you Tucker. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“I have an idea.” he said. 

Dani was struck with sudden deja vu from this morning and smirked at the coincidence. “Yeah, but still. Thanks. And I would appreciate it if Danny didn’t know about this.”

“What? Why?” 

“Well, I just don’t want to explain it to him. He would get overprotective and tell me that I can come live with him and his parents.”

“Well, you could.”

Dani scoffed, “But you know why I can’t.” 

“Yeah,”

It was then at that moment did the clone girl see Mrs. Vasquez walking over with their food, a big grin on her face. 

“Okay, I gotta go, Call me when you finish.” 

“Will do.”

Dani hung up on the phone right when Mrs. Vasquez placed the tray down on the table with a soft thump. “Who was that? Were you talking to somebody? I said it was for emergencies not luxury.”

“Right, no yeah, I was just uhm, calling an old friend. I haven’t heard or seen them in a while and I wanted to let them know I was still alive.” 

Mrs. Vasquez’s expression suddenly became very somber and a small “oh” escaped her lips. She looked down at their food and slowly began to open it up, obviously trying to distract herself from that sad thought. Dani's excuse worked well. “Well, uhm, how about we eat huh? I bet you’re hungry.”

“Starving.”  
……………………………..

Meanwhile, at the local middle school, Billy was having a rough time focussing on his classes. 

His mind kept wandering to the fact that Dani had found out his secret identity, and he had to come up with a way to tell her how he met the Wizard and gained the powers of Shazam. And maybe mention to her that he was on the Justice League. 

That might be important. 

It was safe to say that his distracted mind was affecting his attention in class. On multiple occasions his teachers kept calling for him and hitting his desk, trying to keep his focus on the class subject and lesson. But it didn’t work. No matter what they did, Billy’s mind kept wandering. 

By the time lunch came around, Billy had been given two detention slips in two of his classes for not paying attention. He knew it was a stupid thing to be given detention for, but hey, that was the American education system in a nutshell. At least this time it wasn’t League business. 

Ever since the Atlanteans had made themselves known and Aquaman joined the League, the big eight had been busy with setting down foundations for their crime fighting organization and getting government approval. They had a makeshift base of sorts, but they really needed their own official building that they could use. Diana and Batman had promised that they would try looking into something, but Diana seemed to be more into it than Batsy. 

He was probably too busy brooding and being grumpy to even care. 

And then not to mention the constant criminals and evil masterminds trying their best to take over cities and the world and all of that. 

Ever since the Justice League became known, it seemed like a bunch of crazies popped up from out of nowhere. It was INSANE! Well, actually, that probably wasn’t the best word to use considering that there were a few medically insane criminals. But the point still stands. 

It took everything Billy had to not lose it every time he got in trouble for attending League meetings, summons, or just random call responses. He had a reputation with the teachers for being a troublemaker and ditcher, and while it was all true, it wasn’t for the reason they thought.  
Thankfully though, Cyborg had been able to convince all of the League members to hold meetings till after 3:25. Billy was eternally grateful for that, he had no interest in taking middle school all over again.

The final bell had rung and Billy grabbed his bag as fast as he could and shot out of the school doors like a bullet. Only to be stopped when he heard Darla call out to him. “BILLY!” 

Right, he thought, I have to walk them home today. 

The anxious boy waited beside the flag pole as he watched Darla dart down from the school steps and towards him, Freddy not too far behind on his crutches. 

“I don’t entirely understand why we can’t take the bus. Or why you have to walk us home.” Freddy complained. 

“Well, we can’t take the bus because we don’t live far away enough for it, and I have to walk you guys home in case the something bad happens.” Billy retorted all too quickly. 

Freddy grumbled, “I wish we could use the bus.” 

“I know Freddy, it does suck. It probably would be better.” Darla said, trying to make her older brother feel better. “But hey, at least we got a superhero to walk us home!” 

“You mean a grumpy superhero who would rather be flying instead of walking.”

“Yup!” Darla said, her enthusiasm not deterred by Freddy’s comment. Freddy chuckled at her response. 

It had been a couple of months since Freddy and Darla found out about Billy being Shazam, and as reluctant as he was to admit it, they were great friends to have when he needed help. Whether it was with making excuses for his absences at both home and school or if he just needed to rant to them about the difficulties of having a double life. Billy would always remember the look of awe and excitement when he told them that he was a part of the Justice League. He would cherish that memory forever. 

“So Billy, what do you think of Dani? Do you think she’ll be joining us at school soon?” Darla asked. 

“Hmm? Oh! Uh, maybe. I don’t know. If she wants to go to school that is or if she can keep up. It looked like she was on the streets for a while, who knows where she left off?” 

“Oh, right.” Darla said. “Well I hope she goes soon, it’d be nice to have her at school too. And doesn’t she seem cool too!”

“Yeah!” Freddy exclaimed. “I mean, she was saved by a superhero! How awesome is that! Still don’t really know who Phantom is though, probably have to look him up later though.” 

Billy shrugged, “Maybe I can ask Victor to look him up.” 

Freddy turned to Billy, his dark hair bouncing. “Really? That’d be great. How is Vic by the way? You haven’t mentioned him in a while.”

“Eh, still getting used to being part machine… or more accurately nearly-entirely-machine.” 

“Oh, right.” 

“Still knows how to throw the perfect spiral though. I guess you can still have muscle memory even if you don’t have muscle!” 

“That’s awesome! Glad he still has something from his old life.”

“Yeah, me too.”

They continued to walk in silence for a little bit before Billy decided to tell them what happened last night. “So uhm, I have some news about Dani.” Darla and Freddy instantly turned their attention to the raven-haired boy. 

“What about her?” Darla asked concerned. 

“Well, she uhm...when I came home last night from monitor duty, let’s just say she saw me transform back into Billy.” 

Freddy and Darla gasped. “What? How? Wasn’t she asleep by the time you came home?” Freddy asked.

Billy rubbed his hands together,”Uhm, no not really. I actually found her on the roof. She was stargazing and she saw me turn back. Nothing more.” He said quickly before his two foster siblings could ask for any more details. He didn’t want to tell them that their new sister had tried to run away.

“But how could she have been stargazing?” Darla asked, her brows furrowed. “My bed is by the window, and there’s no way she could have climbed on my bed without me noticing. And I definitely would’ve heard her open it.” 

“She must’ve climbed on the roof through our window then.” Billy said, gesturing to himself and Billy. Freddy shook his head. 

“No, that can’t be right.”

“Why not?”

“Because of the door.” Oh Billy thought. The door to Freddy and Billy’s room had always had an unfixable creak to it. It was due to one of the doors pegs and the Vasquez’s never really got around to fixing it, plus it wasn’t that big of a deal. But the thing was that it was quiet enough to not be too annoying but loud enough to alert and wake up anyone when it was deadly quiet. Like in the middle of the night. 

“And, the window was locked from the inside, remember? I had to unlock it for you guys this morning.” 

Billy’s eyes widened in realization. “You’re right. But then...if Dani didn’t go through her and Darla’s window, and if she didn’t go through our window, how did she get on the roof in the first place?”  
…………………..

After dinner that night, which was pizza thanks to Freddy, Billy declared that he was going to work on homework and went upstairs. It wasn’t long before Freddy followed close behind saying that he too should get a start on his homework. Dani, having nothing else to do, decided to go back up to her room and organize her new things. 

It was strange to her, the fact that she now had possessions to call her own. And while she was doing that, Darla was stuck doing dish duty though, so she couldn’t follow them as much as she wanted to. 

Dani was organizing her shirts when the burner phone in her pocket vibrated and rang. She dropped her shirt on her bed in a flash and whipped out the phone. The caller ID familiar to her eyes as she flicked the old phone open. 

“Tucker?” She said hopefully. 

“Hey, Dani. So I got some news.” the techno geek said. “Apparently, somebody already made some records for you.”

Dani sat down on her bed, surprise etched in her face. “What?” she said dubiously. 

“Yeah. I was working on the files, when I saw that there were medical records and a birth certificate for a girl named Danielle Fenton. I looked into it a bit more and found out that it was forged by someone from DALV Corp.” 

The surprise disappeared from her face and turned into one of contempt. “Vlad.”

“Yup. But it looks like he only stopped there. Nothing else beyond medical records and a birth certificate. Which is the good news.” 

“Why is that good news?” the girl asked curiously. 

“Because now, we don’t have to come up with doctor names and fake numbers and stuff all on our own. The rest shouldn’t be too hard. It’s mainly the birth certificates and medical stuff that are the hardest.”

One thing still nagged at Dani though. “But wait, if that’s true, then doesn’t that mean it’ll list Vlad as my father?”

Tucker was silent for a moment. “Yeah, it does. But I’ll do whatever I can to fix it. I can see if I can give you a different surname too if you want.” 

“Really? You would do that? Isn’t that hard though?”

“Dani, I’m already forging forged documents, just give me a name.”

It didn’t take Dani long to come up with a name. In fact she had thought about it for a while now and she had already decided on a different last name. 

“Overland” she said into the phone. 

“Really? That’s a bit weird of a last name. Can I ask why?” 

“Because I’m always flying “over land” and sea.” she said, a smirk on her face. The other end was silent. Dani was afraid that Tucker had hung up, but there was no click. “Hello?” she said hesitantly. “Tucker?”

“Of course it’s a freaking pun.” he says in a whisper. She could practically hear the disappointment in his voice. “Why didn’t I expect that. Dammit.”

“Fine. Overland it is then. Even if I hate that it’s a pun.”

Dani smiled. “Thanks, Tucker.”

“Yup! No problem. I’ll have it finished up tonight.” 

“Okay, message me when it’s all done.” There was a knock on the door as Billy poked his head through.  
“Yeah, of course. Talk to you later Dani.”  
“Later.”  
The ghost girl hung up her phone and Billy walked into the room. 

“Hey, Dani. I was wondering if I could talk to you?” 

A lump began to form in the girl’s throat. “Uhm, yeah sure. Is this finally you explaining how and why you’re secretly a superhero?” 

Billy chuckled, “Heh, yeah it is. But, I don’t want anyone over hearing, so can we go on the roof?” 

“Sure, yeah.” 

They went over to the room window and unlatched it, climbing onto the roof where they had talked the night before. Dani sat down, arms wrapped her legs and rested her chin on her arms; ready to listen to whatever Billy had to say. This was a superhero origin story and if anything, Dani knew that it had to be a good one. 

Billy shuffled over next to her and rubbed his hands together. He does that a lot. Dani thought to herself. Or maybe he just did that in uncomfortable situations. 

“Before I tell you anything, I want you to know that whatever I say is “confidential”. Only a couple other people know, including Darla, Freddy and one other. You can’t say this to anybody else no matter how badly you might want to. Got it?”

“Of course. Who am I gonna talk to anyway? I was homeless remember, I didn’t have any friends.” 

“Right.” Billy said. 

“Okay, so it starts a couple of years ago. I wasn’t always like this, in fact it all started when I was having breakfast with a reporter one morning."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehehehee i mixed the two movies together. HAHAHA. I love that little bit there. Hope you guys enjoyed it! Please leave kudos and comment!


	3. Grey Clouds and Green Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally, we get Dani turning into her ghost persona. This was both a fun chapter to write and a difficult one. It's also a bit shorter than the other two chapters.
> 
> Hope you all enjoy.

It had been a few days since Dani had learned the story of Billy Batson, and she had to say, it was pretty bizarre. 

I mean, a homeless ten-year-old being blessed with the power of Greek gods from an old wizard who lived in a rundown subway station? It was almost as crazy as having been created from the sample DNA of a half-ghost! 

The days had been relatively quiet since then, not much happened in the Vasquez household and Billy didn’t have any superhero duties till later tonight, so it was pretty dull. 

And Dani absolutely HATED it. 

Just sitting in a house all day, with nothing better to do than read books and do chores was HORRIBLE! Dani was used to action, fighting ghosts, and traveling the world. She always had to be doing something, and now that she was in one place for barely a week, it had made her especially restless. 

Then over the weekend she had taken Darla to the park, just to get some fresh air and exercise, and the entire time she had been watching the sky. She thought back to the morning before she left. 

“Bye guys! I’m going to the park. See you all in a few hours.” She called out, a jacket over her arm. Dani’s true intentions for leaving had been to get out of the house and maybe go flying invisibly. It had been too long since she had last used her powers and she could practically feel the ectoplasm itching and bubbling underneath her skin. Just begging to be used. 

“Wait, Dani!” Mrs. Vasquez had said rather quickly. Dani froze. “Would you mind taking Darla with you? I’d think she would enjoy it and I don’t want you going by yourself.” 

Dani groaned internally and turned around, a fake smile plastered on her face. “Of course! I don’t mind.” 

“Great! Make sure to be back by 4:30. I don’t want you guys out past sunset and you know how quickly it gets dark.” 

“Yep. Got it.” the girl said rigidly. She then had to sit down for a couple of minutes as she waited for Darla to get dressed and find a coat. Who knew that kids took forever to get ready? 

So here they were, Dani and Darla at the park in the middle of an autumn day; the grey sky above them and falling golden leaves everywhere. Dani sat down at a bench close to the park’s playset and watched Darla as she ran around having fun. 

The halfa couldn’t help it as a smile spread across her face, but it didn’t last long as she turned her eyes back to the sky. She couldn’t help but feel a little anxious as the cold clouds slowly rolled by. It had been days, nearly weeks, since a ghost last attacked her, and Dani was definitely nervous about it. 

It was the calm before the storm and she feared what the storm would bring.

At this point, Dani would take anything. She just needed to move and fight something. Anything! Whether it was an out of control car, a falling plane, a robbery, a mugging, or even the Box Ghost! She had to do something. But apparently, that’ll have to wait till she was truly alone. 

Dani looked up when Darla screamed in delight. She had jumped off of the swing while it was in midair and landed in the wood chips; a great big smile on her face. The ghost girl smiled, unable to resist Darla’s contagious smile. She looked around at the sky once more and realized just how dark it really wash. Dani pulled out the burner phone and checked the time. 

4:17

Dani cringed and quickly stood up. “Come on Darla! We gotta get going!” 

The young girl wiped off the bark dust from her pants and swiftly ran over to the bench, her smile still not leaving her face. 

“Is it almost time to leave?” she asked. 

“No, we have to get going now. I underestimated how long we were going to be here.” She grabbed Darla’s hand and together they started their way back home. They walked in silence for about thirty seconds before Darla asked Dani a question that she had avoided since living in the foster home. 

“So how did you get from Central City to Fawcett? You never really said.” 

Dani sucked in a breath, glancing at Darla out of the corner of her eye. That was what she told them wasn’t it? That she used to live in Central. “Uh, uhm, well, uh, I uhm…..hopped on a train!” 

“Huh?” Darla asked confused. 

“I hopped on a train.” She said more confidently. “And I didn’t know where it was going….because it was a cargo train, and somehow…. I ended up..in Fawcett City?” 

Please believe me, please believe me, please believe me. 

Darla nodded. “Oh. Okay.” 

Dani let out a sigh of relief. That was a close one. 

“What was living in Central City like?” 

Dammit

“Did you have to deal with a lot of metahumans and villains?” 

“Uhmm, yeah! I did. It was rough. You know, being a homeless kid on the streets and having to deal with supervillains every week or so.” 

It wasn’t a lie. Dani did live on the streets and she had to deal with supervillains every week, but just not in the context that Darla was thinking of. 

“You were on the streets?” Darla asked surprised. 

“Uh, yeah I was.” 

“And then you got caught doing something bad and got put back into the foster system? Heh, that sounds a lot like Billy.” 

“Uhm, yeah, I guess.” 

It was quiet for a moment before Darla took a breath. “So you know about Billy?” She asked carefully. Dani turned to the little girl, a little bit surprised that Darla brought it up. 

“Uhm, yeah, I do. Did he tell you that I found out.” 

The dark-skinned girl nodded, her ponytail bouncing. “Yeah, he did.” she stopped walking.

“You won’t tell anyone will you? I know that Billy asked you this already, but I want to make sure of this myself.” Darla gripped the edges of her jacket. “Billy is one of the only family I have left and I don’t want anything happening to him. I don’t know what I’d do if he had to leave or run away again. So please promise me you won’t tell anybody?” 

Dani was taken aback by the sudden protectiveness, but quickly accepted it and spoke. “I promise. I won’t do anything to him. After all, you guys are my family too. Even though I’m still technically a stranger.” 

Darla nodded, approving of the answer, as she ran up to Dani. “We’re almost home. Don’t want Mrs. Vasquez to get mad at us if we miss our curfew.” 

“Right, of course.” Dani said.   
……………………………..

Once Dani had left the house, with an eager Darla trailing behind her, Billy whipped out his phone and sent a message to his dear friend, Victor Stone. 

Anything come up? He typed into the phone.  
Nothing yet. I’ll let you know when something does come up. The cyborg responded immediately. 

Billy groaned and tossed the phone onto his bed. 

Earlier that day, Victor said how he wanted to do a digital check on Dani and to look into the hero she mentioned, Phantom. Mostly to see if she was an actual person and had an electronic/viable history. The whole thing seemed a little silly to Billy to be honest, but he was nervous when Victor started saying that there was no information on a Dani, that fit her description anywhere. At least, not in their part of the country. That had peaked the boy’s interest. And concern. 

No Dani? That couldn’t be right. Maybe they just needed to get her last name. Even though she wouldn’t tell it to anyone. That would serve to make things harder for Victor’s search. 

And that was only this morning. It had been a whole day, and still Victor couldn’t find anything relating to a Danielle No Name. Which was a pretty serious issue when the person searching was two-thirds computer. 

And by the time, Dani got home, Victor had still found nothing on her. It was beginning to get a little nerve-wracking. 

However, the search on Phantom was a success. Victor had found a lot of information on him, and apparently some of it was sketchy and but most of it was reliable. It looked like he was a villain-turned-hero, which was quite a nice change in pace compared to other heroes. And Dani was right, he was just as powerful as she described.

It seemed that during a ghost invasion, a year or two before Darkseid happened, Phantom decided to step up and defeated the armies, claiming the title of Town Hero. It was an incredible event, one that Billy wished he knew the whole story of. 

And it was probably a good thing that he decided to come to the side of good. Otherwise Billy didn’t know what the League would have done about him. 

Billy did wonder though, when and how Dani made it to Amity Park. That was far off course from Central City, and it looks like Phantom never leaves the town. So at one point of another in the last couple of years, Dani had to be in Amity. How could she have crossed the country on her own and kept out of the foster system? Somebody had to have noticed her. 

Or maybe they didn’t?  
……………………………….. 

Later that same night, Dani couldn’t take it any longer. She HAD to get out of the house. During dinner, Mr. Vasquez had to tell Dani to stop jumping her leg up and down and tapping her finger on the table, it was distracting and irritating everybody. The ectoplasm inside of her just needed to get out and she couldn’t find any other way to get rid of some of her nerves. And waiting for Billy to leave for something called ‘Monitor Duty’ and everybody else in the house to fall asleep had been a NIGHTMARE. 

But finally it happened. And just in time to. When Dani was sure that everybody was sleeping, she threw off her covers, turned intangible, and zoomed through the roof and into the night air. And without missing a beat she tapped into her ghost core and let the rings of light wash over her. She let out a sigh of relief. 

Much better. She thought. 

The ghost took in a deep breath and relaxed as the comfortable and familiar chill resided inside of her. Opening her toxic green eyes she glanced down at her outfit and smiled. 

During her time away, traveling the world, Dani had made the decision to change her ghost costume. For two reasons.

One, she wanted to make her own identity and not just be known as a rip-off of Phantom; and two, Vlad had been the one to give her her outfit and she wanted to have nothing to do with that monster. So she ditched her old costume and came up with a new one. It had taken a while, she won’t lie, it had been difficult finding the right kind of clothes at thrift stores and Goodwills, but eventually she got it. 

Her new outfit consisted of white sneakers, black sweatpants, a strange black crop top hoodie/t-shirt combo with white sleeves, and long, black,fingerless gloves. And a white belt that held a Fenton thermos on it. 

She loved her new uniform. 

Dani took in a deep sigh of relief, reminiscing in the cool night air, before shooting into the sky in a flash of white. 

It was just as amazing as she remembered. The wind, the stars, the moon, the silvery clouds, the freezing air, the city lights, the honking of cars in the distance. It was awesome. 

The ghost girl shut her eyes and began to drift, letting the wind currents guide her to wherever they pleased. She put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs, acting as if she was lying down on a couch in the Vasquez living room. The sounds of the city grew louder and louder until the girl decided to open her eyes and see that she was in the heart of Fawcett City. Flying over the skyscrapers with ease and a lazy smile on her face. 

Man, did it feel good to be using her powers again! 

She was just about to close her eyes again, when a strange sound reached the ghost girl’s ears. One thing that came along with being half-ghost was heightened senses. Dani didn’t really know why that was a thing, but apparently it was, and Dani was so thankful for it. 

She flipped upside down, so that she was facing the bottom of the city and the roads, and tried to pay attention to what she had heard. She flew lower to the city, now hovering over the roof of a low building instead of soaring over the high structures. The girl could see the roads and cars more clearly now, as well as hear the strange sounds better than before. 

The sound came again, and it was weird. Like somebody was crunching something fragile. Or like ice being crunched. Wait….no. Not ice. 

Glass. 

It was the sound of glass shattering. Someone was breaking in somewhere and they were stealing. It was a classic robbery, she realized, as she could hear the sounds of the group trifle through the broken glass and take things out of their respective cases. 

Oh yes. Dani thought to herself. Hello, misplaced aggression.   
……………………………………

However, while that was happening, Billy was at the JL headquarters trying to make sense of something. 

While he was sitting at the computer, just chilling and minding his own business, definitely NOT trying to see how many Doritos he could fit in his mouth at one time, a blip came across the screen and then an alarm. Billy sat up straight, the remaining Doritos crushed under his fisted hand as he watched the holo-screen before him light up red. 

A strange power source had been detected flying straight towards Fawcett City. Well, not straight, it was more like a bee line. 

But still. 

The reading it gave off was nothing like Billy had seen before; probably because he couldn’t properly read all of this science stuff very well yet because he was still in middle school, but he still knew enough to know when something the equivalent to a nuclear bomb was flying towards Fawcett. 

He dropped the forgotten bag of chips and wiped off the remaining cheese dust on his cape, no second thoughts in his mind as the superhero leapt off the ground and flew into the sky. 

………………….

Dani followed the sounds of the robbery until she came upon a jewelry store; why was it always a jewelry store? You’d think the company would invest in better security, but apparently not. The girl disappeared from the visible spectrum and floated to the front. 

The store was dark, but luckily her glowing eyes helped her see through the darkness, and she found five people inside the store yoinking out multiple diamond necklaces and bracelets. 

Oh, this is too easy. She thought to herself. She saw that there were three men and two women, if she was to go by their clothes and body shapes. One of the men was at the front of the store, holding a gun and hiding behind one of the pillars, keeping a lookout for any police or heroes. 

Dani just slipped on past him, suppressing a giggle. 

There was another person, one of the women, at the back of the store looking out of the back door while the rest of them were busy taking the priceless jewelry. The robbers didn’t even notice the slight chill that settled in the room. They were so busy stealing that they couldn’t be bothered with noticing a simple change in temperature.

And out of a mischievous nature, the young ghost girl had a thought. Maybe instead of taking them out with a few ectoblasts, she should teach them a lesson. One that they won’t forget and one that’ll remind them of why stealing is bad. Nothing too serious, mind you, but maybe just a little fun. She did need to practice all of her abilities after all. 

An impish smile on her face and her eyes glowing a soft blue, Dani flew over the glass cases and began frosting them over. 

She saw this trick used on a tv show once before that included ghosts. The show had something to do with brothers hunting creatures or something like that? Eh, she didn’t bother remembering the name of it, but she had thought that it was an interesting take on ghosts. And now she used the same trick on these idiots of criminals. 

One of the men stopped what they were doing the moment they saw the frost, and took a step back. 

 

“Uhm, guys?” he said nervously. 

“What?” one whispered harshly. 

“Did you see that?” 

“See what?” 

Dani took this moment to frost over another case. 

“That.” the original said. A low tremor in his voice. Dani slid next to the other woman, who had a large duffel bag full of necklaces and rings, and slipped her hand into the bag. Turning everything in it intangible, she pulled the large pile out from the bag, instantly emptying it. 

“What the hell?” the woman said as she noticed the empty bag and it’s weightlessness. 

Dani smiled and hid the pile of jewels behind a counter, out of sight. She continued to do the rest to the other bags as the robbers grew more and more confused and panicky. 

Soon they were whisper shouting at each other, trying to figure out what was happening. The guy from the front and the woman from the back soon came back into the room. “What’s taking you guys so long?”

“There’s a ghost!” the original man exclaimed. 

“Oh, shut up!” the woman hissed. “There’s no such thing as ghosts. We all know that. Now be quiet and let’s get going!” 

“We can’t.” The other woman said. “All of our bags are empty!”

“What!? What have you guys been doing since we got here then?”

“We were getting the stuff, but it all just disappeared, we can’t find any of it!” 

“It’s a ghost! I swear!” 

“Shut up, Jeff!” the woman called out, giving Dani the name of the man she had first scared. ”Well, what do we do? We can’t leave with our bags empty or else this would’ve all been for nothing!”

“Oh, now that would be a shame now, wouldn’t it?” Dani said in a low voice. The groups reaction was instantaneous. They all pulled out a gun or a taser and readied it, their shoulders tense and ears and eyes alert. Waiting for the disembodied voice to speak again.

“What the hell was that!?” Jeff shouted. The woman, Dani assumed she was the leader, shushed him. 

The room was silent and tense with anticipation, as the criminals waited for the ghost girl to speak again. 

“Oh you know….Just a ghost.” the entity said as she dropped her invisibility, her eyes glowing unnaturally bright and for a dramatic effect, making the ends of her feet and hands slowly invisible. Her white hair flying around her face, shining a bright white, nearly as blinding as her regular aura; and for someone who had never seen ghosts before, she would have definitely scared them. 

Jeff dropped the gun and walked out of the store, leaving behind his bag. “Okay, that’s it. Uh uh, I’m not dealing with this. Bye guys! Hope you live.” 

There was a big WHOOM outside of the store right after he walked out and Dani could hear the man cry out “Oh come on!” Before he screamed and nobody heard anything else. 

The robbers took the moment of distraction to raise their guns and shoot at the ghost girl. Who, while sort of surprised by the attack, didn’t flinch when bullets swept through her, hitting the wall behind her and creating a hell lot of noise. 

The remaining men and women looked on in fear as Dani brushed the plaster dust from her shoulders. “Okay,” her lands lit up green. “You asked for it.” 

And then everything went to hell. 

The din of gun fire and glass shattering could be heard blocks away from the real fight as the robbers fought for their lives against the strange creature. They didn’t know who or what she was and were beyond scared at the prospect of what she could do to them. 

They shot at the ghost, but the fire went harmlessly through her, and she laughed. LAUGHED. Her hands and eyes glowing the same toxic green, she lunged forward and began to fight them all; turning intangible and invisible with ease. She was knocking out each robber one at a time, and they couldn’t do anything to defend themselves against the ghost. She clutched a gun that was aimed at her and crushed it with her fist. A spurt of green fire shooting out of the weapon, rendering it useless as she dropped it to the ground. 

The phantom spun around kicking and punching with practiced finesse, shooting a blast of green here or there. Virtually unstoppable. However, one of the robbers was able to sweep her feet out from underneath her, causing her to lose her precious balance and fall to the floor. But when she fell towards the ground, instead of landing with a thud, she simply went through the floor. Disappearing from the robber’s sight. 

The man who had struck the blow got up quickly from the ground and looked anxiously at the floor. He was the last one standing and he didn’t know where the dreaded hero was. If the disappearing monster even was a hero. He grabbed one of the few unbroken guns and pointed it at the ground. Spinning around, trying to find a sign that showed where the creature was, but to no avail. 

It was so quiet. He couldn’t stand it. “WHERE ARE YOU!?” he shouted into the dark and empty store. 

“Here.” and then he saw darkness. 

Dani stood over the last of the criminals, finally knocked out, and she let out a sigh. It had been too long since she punched something and she couldn’t deny that it felt good to actually move around and fight. 

Even though it was no Skulker or Walker or Spectra, it was still a good enough work out for her. 

“Well then, I’ll guess I’ll just leave you guys for the police. I’m sure they would’ve heard the gunfire by now. Hopefully I won’t be seeing you anytime soon!” Dani strolled out of the store, walking over broken glass and dusting off her hands. That was a good way to pass the time, but she should really get going now. It’s been too long since she left the Vasquez home and her internal clock was telling her that dawn was coming soon. 

But just when she was about to take off, she saw a very familiar someone standing in front of the store. 

In a red suit.

A white cape.

And a golden lightning bolt across his chest. 

Shit. Dani thought. 

There he was, standing harmlessly in front of the destroyed jewelry store with the other robber, Jeff, hanging from his fist. Staring open-mouthed at the ghost girl, like a fish gasping for water. 

“Wha-” he began to say, but before he could say anymore, the girl disappeared in the blink of an eye. Leaving behind a very confused, very distressed, very surprised Shazam. The “adult” hero glanced around, trying to find any evidence of where the girl went, but just like the robber before him, saw nothing.

He brought a hand up to his head and scratched it in confusion. 

“What the hell just happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oofta, what a chapter. Billy's getting suspicious and Dani fought crime and put herself on the Superhero Radar. Until next time! Kudos and criticism is always appreciated.


	4. Comm Alerts and Slipups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy is anxious and Dani makes a mistake. And there's a surprise appearance from a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that it took me so long to upload this fic! Things have been crazy for me. This was one of my favorite chapters to write and i hope you guys enjoy it just as much i do!

Shazam zoomed through the dark, cloudy sky like a speeding bullet. Wind whistling in his ears, cape flapping behind him, and arms stuck out in that classic Superman pose. A confused and serious look on his face as he thought back to what had just happened earlier that night.

 

After handing off the criminals to the police and giving them his statement, saying that it was in fact not him to take down the robbers but another hero, he got out of there as fast as he could and headed towards the temporary base of the Justice League. Billy hadn’t been able to watch the entire fight, he only saw the end of it, but from what he had seen, that strange girl was one heck of a powerhouse. He had never witnessed anything like it before and it was starting to freak him out. 

 

The hero dropped onto the pavement below him and raced inside the empty facility. Going over to the computers and typing in some code, he pulled up the security cameras from earlier that evening. He watched intently as the robbers entered the store and began rifling through the cases of jewelry and stealing. All was going relatively normal for a crime like this when all of a sudden frost covered one of the cases. 

 

Billy watched in fascination as the scene unfolded before him. Each of the criminals’ bags being emptied by invisible hands, the frost, the men and women suddenly becoming more panicky the longer they stayed in the store, and then the white and black-suited glowing girl coming from nowhere popping up in front of the criminals. Her eyes glowing that radioactive green that made Billy feel sick to his stomach. 

 

He couldn’t tear his eyes away as he watched her take on every single robber with practiced moves and relative ease. Popping on and off the screen as she repeatedly became invisible and transparent. 

 

Common sense finally slapping him in the face, the demigod scrounged for a pen and paper. Once he did find one, he began scribbling down all of the visible powers she had. Rewinding and rewatching the footage over and over again until he was satisfied with the list he came up with. 

 

Invisibility  
Flight  
Transparency(?): allows things to go through her  
Green laser rays  
Glowing (would this be considered a power???)

 

He glanced over the list, thinking if there was anything else he missed, but when he couldn’t find anything else he folded the list and set it aside. Pulling out his comm, Billy messaged for one of the only League members he truly trusted to meet up with him as soon as he can, before settling down for the rest of his shift. He was still on monitor duty and he would be for a few more hours until he could go home. Might as well spend it wisely and go over what happened in that jewelry store. 

 

While Billy may have just been a 13-year-old kid, he wasn’t a stupid kid. He knew that if there was a new hero around Fawcett then she couldn’t have gone far. She had to be around here somewhere. And while, yes, it was clear that she could fly, the Wisdom of Solomon told him that she wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. And the Wisdom hadn’t failed him yet, so why should he doubt it? 

 

The middle schooler was beginning to recall the moments of the fight that he was there for and began to remember something that he had overlooked when he had arrived. It was an almost unfamiliar feeling, but at the same time, Billy knew that he had felt it somewhere before. The memory rammed into him like a truck and his eyes widened in shock. It was the same magical aura that he had felt a few days ago! The one he felt just outside of his house! He didn’t notice it at the time but it was the exact same, except stronger this time. 

 

It HAD to be the glowing girl. He just knew it! 

 

But if it was the glowing girl, then why hadn’t he noticed her a couple of days ago when he first felt her presence? Shouldn’t he have been able to see something that strange? If he was able to see the true forms of other magical creatures, then why didn’t he notice her? She wasn’t exactly subtle. 

 

It was this moment did Cyborg choose to walk through the doors, his heavy metal feet pounding on the floor, sending vibrations through the ground. 

 

“Hey, Billy,” he said, “What was so urgent that you needed to talk to me about?” 

 

“Something happened and I need your help.” he said as he gestured for Victor to come over beside him. Billy turned the security footage back on and let the video play. Having heard the seriousness in the younger boy’s voice, Victor walked over to the computer, paying close attention to the footage playing on the screens. If this was big enough for Billy to call him in during monitor duty and acting seriously instead of the immature teenager, then it must’ve been pretty important. 

 

Victor had just reached the point in the video when the case was covered with ice. He leaned forward on the table, becoming more and more interested in what was happening. Then the girl showed up, floating in mid-air, a white aura surrounding her, green eyes, her hands and feet slowly turning invisible, and her bright floating hair. It was ethereal and nerve-wracking for the cyborg. 

 

The tech inside of him instantly tried to analyze the girl, but it was just a security camera video. He couldn’t actually gain any worthy information from it other than what she looked like and what few powers she used. 

 

He watched on intensely until the video ended with the girl vanishing from view; Victor leaned back, his mind going a hundred miles a second, as he tried to comprehend what he had just seen.

 

“Who, or what, on earth is that?” 

 

Billy shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’ll give you one thing. It’s definitely not human.”

 

“Metahuman then? Should we call in Barry?” 

 

Billy shook his head at the suggestion. “It’s not a metahuman, and I don’t want any other League members on this. This happened in Fawcett and Fawcett is MY town.” 

 

Victor raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, fine, fair enough. I just thought that Barry could help with this kind of stuff. He knows a lot about metahumans and if she isn’t human what else could she be?” He was silent for a second. “A Lantern? Maybe she is like...the White Lantern? Is that even a thing?” 

 

“No, she’s not a White Lantern, there’s no ring. And even if she was, why would the uniform be mostly black? That doesn’t make sense. And plus, the White Lanterns don’t have any division over here, as far as I know.” Billy reciprocated. “No, she’s not alien, she’s not human, she’s definitely not Atlantean...but I think she may be a magical entity.” 

 

Victor looked at the red-clad hero with wide eyes, skepticism lying within them. “Magical...entity,” he said slowly, testing the words on his lips. 

 

“Yeah! You know, like mythical creatures and all that.” 

 

“You mean like a unicorn?” 

 

Billy rolled his eyes. “No, not a unicorn you idiot.”

 

The cyborg let out a breath. “Oh, okay.”

 

“Unicorns look way different.” 

 

“Wha-?”

 

“No, I mean, like a-uh eudaemon* or an arae* or maybe a….” Billy began to tap his head with his finger, acting as if that action would help him think better. There had to be SOMETHING in Solomon’s Wisdom that could help him with this. But when he couldn’t come up with anything, he let out a sigh of disappointment and slouched into the back of the chair. “I don’t know.”

 

“You don’t know?” Victor asked. Billy frustratedly through his hands up. 

 

“I don’t know!” the boy exclaimed. He crossed his arms and slipped even deeper into the chair grumpily, acting like the child he truly was. It looked like Billy was trying to melt into a puddle in the chair, but was failing fabulously. 

 

“I made a list of the powers she has, from what we know, but pairing that with her appearance and the Wisdom of Solomon, I couldn’t come up with anything! There was nothing there.”

 

Victor nodded his head, listening intently to the boy, and turned his attention back to the footage. “So then if she’s magic-”

 

“She is!” 

 

“So then, she’s a recent magical entity. Like, her ‘species’ was just made?” 

 

Billy glanced up at his friend. “That makes sense. It would explain why I keep coming up empty on information about her.” His face scrunched up. “Yeah, okay that does makes sense.” 

 

“But Billy, are you absolutely certain that she is a magical creature? Because if not, the next time you cross paths with her, it’s not going to end well. You have to be careful about this.”

 

The teenager stood up, getting out of his slouched position, and grabbed his list making his way to the door. His shift had just ended. “I know that. And I am sure about it.” He was just about to leave the building before he remembered something. 

 

“Also, I was in fact able to get a energy signature from her. I don’t know how exactly, but the computer picked up on it. It was how I knew about her. So if you can, could you take a look at it? Then maybe next time when she shows up on the computer’s radar give me a call or something?”

 

Victor smiled and turned back to the computers. “Sure thing. Now you should be heading home. It’s late.” 

 

“Right. Later, Vic.”

 

“Later, Billy.” 

………………………….

 

The following day had been hell for the raven-haired boy. He had gotten home at the horrible hour of 4am and had spent the remainder of his time trying to get eight hours of sleep into four.

 

But it was all in vain as Mrs. Vasquez came into his room and shook him awake. 

 

Then at the breakfast table, Mr. Vasquez said how he wanted to work on the yard today. And asked Billy and Dani to help. 

 

Mainly because they were the ones who had “slept” in apparently, but Billy didn’t really get the entire reason since he was too busy trying not to fall asleep on top of his oatmeal. And it looked like Dani was having a very similar problem. He had assumed that since she out of the two of them had actually slept in that she would be more rested than he was (looks into the camera like on the Office because we all know what bullshit is happening here). Yet here she was drinking three cups of coffee and struggling to keep her eyes open as Mr. Vasquez began telling them what needed to be done in the yard. 

 

Then when they were actually working, and when they were both somewhat awake, Billy kept checking his messages and his League comm to see if Victor had sent him anything. But when he saw nothing on both he huffed and kept working. 

 

There was one point when Dani had yelped and fallen down; and when Billy and Mr. Vasquez asked what had happened, she said that she had tripped on one of the branches they were cleaning up. But when Billy looked around, he saw that there weren’t any branches lying around. 

 

He brushed it aside though, she probably just tripped on her own feet and didn’t want to be too embarrassed. She had been pretty tired that morning. (keeps staring into the camera).

 

Then came along dinner, which was Dani’s turn to choose, and she chose to have fried chicken. The majority of her sleepiness had been washed away by then and it had been replaced with fidgetiness, much like the night before, Billy noted.

 

Throughout the entire dinner, Dani kept glancing at the oven clock. Her fingers tapping rapidly on the table, her leg bouncing up and down with speed almost like the Flash’s, and she kept chewing on her lip, it was as if she was anticipating something. It looked to Billy a lot like she had all of this energy bubbling inside of her that just needed to get out. 

 

Maybe she had ADHD or something similar. He made a mental note to ask her about it later and continued to eat his chicken. Every now and then glancing at his comm; still nothing from the cyborg. 

 

It was when they were all doing the dishes together did things get weird. 

 

Without any warning, Dani let out a gasp. She dropped the glass she was holding and wrapped her arms around herself as if she was hit with a sudden gust of cold wind. 

 

“Dani, are you okay?” Freddy asked, having stopped rinsing the dishes. Dani stood straight up, her eyes wide, and hands at her sides. 

 

“Uhm, uuhhhhh….I’m n-not feeling so good! Gotta use the bathroom, be right back!” she exclaimed before she raced upstairs, leaving behind a very confused group of kids and one broken glass to clean up. 

 

“What?” Darla said. Freddy shrugged and turned around to get the sweep and dustpan, with Billy walking over and taking the broom from him so that his brother wouldn’t trip over his crutches. “I don’t know. Beats me.” 

 

Billy turned back to his chore of sweeping up the glass, a little hesitant. Wondering what could’ve caused Dani to act like that when he suddenly got a beep from him comm. Setting aside the broom he pulled out the little device and saw the message from Victor. The signature showed up again. 

 

Not too far from his area. 

 

Actually, it was in his area. It popped up literally half a block away from his house. 

 

Holy crap! He thought. “Okay, I gotta go. Finish up will ya!?” He yelled behind him as he raced out of the house, using the sliding glass door. 

 

“What!? No! Billy!” he could hear Darla call out after him. He didn’t listen as he ran up to the fence and jumped over it. 

 

The signature wasn’t too far away from him, therefore he didn’t have to turn into Shazam in order to follow it. So the raven-haired teen opted for running after it. Plus Billy didn’t want to cause too much attention and spook whoever or whatever he was following. 

 

Billy followed the pull in his gut, the same one from when he first encountered this being and the same one from days ago. He followed it across lawns and fences and streets, until all of a sudden it stopped. 

 

The boy slowed down and came to a stop, gasping for breath and looking around for the same glowing girl that he had seen the night before. The cold evening air clawed at his throat as he tried to catch his breath again; he rested his hands on his knees and tried his best not to fall down in the grass, finally registering the place he had ended up. 

 

Half-constructed homes surrounded him, wooden panels and beams looking like skeletons in the dull orange light, and large machines parked in the middle of dirt fields. The boy realized he had ended up in the middle of the home development part of Fawcett. And the dark blue sky above him had a layer of dim grey clouds rolling in, suggesting that rain was going to be following shortly. Dusk’s light had ended long ago and now Billy found himself alone in the dark, albeit with a little bit of sketchy lighting. 

 

The teen threw his hands in the air. 

 

“Oh, great.” he said. “This is perfect.” 

 

He rubbed the back of his head and gave one last look around the empty unfinished houses, looking for the girl in vain, before turning back to the direction he had come from and shuffling forward. He hadn’t bothered to bring a jacket with him and this autumn air was really starting to get to him. 

 

Like the wind was biting his skin. It reminded the magic user of when he had lived on the streets not quite so long ago. He shook his head, not wanting to revisit those memories. 

 

He was just about to leave the construction sites when a voice shouted behind him. “Leave me ALONE!” 

 

Followed by the sound of blasts and wood splintering. 

 

Out of reflex, Billy ducked behind one of the houses and held his breath. 

 

His body froze, ears ringing, and he strained to listen as carefully as he could. Not wanting to lose a word. Voices could be heard, but Billy was having trouble distinguishing them. It was all a jumble to him. 

 

He had to get closer. 

 

Poking his head out from the wood panel he had hidden behind, Billy found that he still couldn’t see where the voices were coming from. Closing his eyes, and swiftly making his mind up, he began to creep farther into the sites, carefully placing his feet here and there so that he wasn’t stepping on things that would alert his presence. Such as tarps or spare pieces of wood and lose nails. The boy could hear his heart hammering in his ears and he tried so hard to keep his breathing even and quiet. 

 

The voices were louder now.

 

He continued to walk forward, eyes peeled for the glowing girl and whoever she was talking to and his ears listened for the smallest shift in the voices and his surroundings. 

 

There was another blast, and the sound of wood cracking resonated around him again. Billy crouched down in an instant, making himself as small as possible so that he wasn’t hit by a rogue laser. 

 

The voices were clearer this time. 

 

“Leave me be Skulker! What the hell is your deal!?” the girl shouted. Clearly frustrated with this Skulker dude. What kind of stupid name is Skulker anyway?

 

“I will not stop! One day, your’s and the Ghost Boy’s pelts will reside at the foot of my bed! I must prove that I am the best!”

 

Eeww Billy thought. Who does that? The young hero peeked out from his hiding spot, this time finally able to see the girl and her adversary. 

 

There she was, floating forty feet in the air, in a fighting stance, her fists curled with green flames swirling around them, and her hair flying around her face. Her eyes glaring forward at her opponent and a look of determination set into her face. This wasn’t like last night, when she was fighting with ease and agility. No, this time she was tense and apprehensive. The girl considered the person she was fighting a threat, when previously the criminals from before were like an exercise to her. A game. 

 

And the person she was fighting? This Skulker? He was unlike anything Billy had seen. The raven had to restrain himself from gasping in shock. 

 

It was a metal man, or a man in armor of some high tech suit, with jets on his back keeping him in the air and glowing green flames coming up from his head, much like a mohawk would. He had his arm raised at the girl, a gun of some sort perched on top of it. A grim smile on his robotic face as he spoke to the girl. 

 

“I will be honest, you are usually harder to catch. You’re much more elusive than the Ghost Boy. So why are you suddenly so easy all of a sudden?”

 

The girl’s fists grew brighter. “That’s none of your tin head business!” She fired a laser at him, he dodged. 

 

“Perhaps, you’ve gotten comfortable? I saw the house you were staying in. The humans looked so soft and easy.” Skulker said, the creepy grin remained on his face. 

 

“Shut up, bitch!” the girl released a rapid fire of the green lasers, the tin man tried to dodge most of them, but a few hit their mark and he was blown backwards. 

 

“Ahah!! It seems I have found a weakness.”

 

“I said…” Glowing Girl flew at the man at breakneck speed, sending a fist straight to the jaw, spinning around to deliver a hook kick, and shooting him with an intense beam that was more white than green. “SHUT UP!!” 

 

The Skulker guy went down, dipping low enough to almost be touching the houses. Billy watched on in awe and fascination of the battle. 

 

The robot lightly rubbed his jaw, as if he could feel a bruise forming, he glanced up at the girl and in a split second shot his gun, aimed right at her chest. She dodged and flew back up, gaining high ground and letting her green blasts loose. Billy ducked, holding his head like you would during earthquake or tornado drills. When the blasts stopped he looked back up, seeing that Skulker ejected multiple missiles from his back. A majority of them locked onto the girl and flew after her, but a few went rogue. Flying here and there causing destruction wherever they landed. And one missile in particular, aimed right towards Billy hiding spot. 

 

“Shit.” he said beneath his breath before he dove out of the way. The heat wave from the blast rolled over him painfully and a few wood chips flew and scratched his arms and face. He could already feel them stinging. He was lying on the ground for just a moment, before he noticed that there were no other battle noises. 

 

The raven haired boy glanced up cautiously and could see the ghost girl staring at him, green eyes wide in shock, and the robot grinning evilly as he aimed electric blue energy at him, not ten feet away. Skulker looked back to the girl. 

 

“Well, it looks like one of your humans followed you.”

 

Huh? Billy thought. What’s he talking about? 

 

The girl slowly began to descend, lowering herself until she was on the ground. Her shoulders were tense, her eyes focused, her feet resting in a fighting position, and her hands kept flickering green. As if she was trying to suppress them. Billy sluggishly moved into a kneeling position, hissing at the new burns that rubbed against his clothes. 

 

He glared at the robotic man before him. But the robot wasn’t giving him the time of day. To him, Billy was just a pathetic hostage who couldn’t do much. If only this guy knew who he was really messing with. And instead of keeping an eye on his hostage, he was monologuing to the girl. Something about being “Auto Zone’s greatest hunter” or something like that. The Auto Zone jingle rang through Billy’s head and he growled at himself. This was definitely not the time nor place to be thinking about jingles for auto shops and their prices. 

 

Blue gaze unwavering, Billy felt around him for anything to throw. And before you go off, yes, that is a stupid move to do. Why should he throw something at the guy who was threatening to end his life in a second? 

 

Well to distract him of course! 

 

Billy’s hand brushed against a piece of wood, scorched from the explosion not too long ago, and gripped it tight. He looked at Glowing Girl, who had her eyes trained on him, and saw what he was holding. He jerked his head at the villain before him and tried to motion to her what he was doing. It was moments like these that Billy wished he had telepathy to go along with his powers. But alas, he had to make do. 

 

And before the girl could deter him from his plan, Billy threw the block of wood at Skulker, hitting him right in the eye just when he was saying how the girl would regret ever bringing her humans into this mess. You know, normal evil villain stuff. Skulker reeled back from the sudden hit and that was when the girl took her opening. She fired a blast of green at the robot and kicked him in the face. 

 

While he was disoriented, the girl scooped Billy up and flew between houses. Making sharp turns and twists as she did so. Billy’s hair kept fluttering around his face and getting in his mouth so he couldn’t see where exactly they were going. Finally, the girl set him down and glanced over her shoulder, keeping a lookout for the robot and his guns and missiles. She suddenly turned on Billy, her face contorted in anger. 

 

“BILLY!? What the hell are you doing here!? Why aren’t you at home? You can’t be here right now, it’s not safe for you!” An explosion boomed behind them and the sound of a building crumbling followed. It seemed that Skulker was destroying the houses to try and find them.

 

“Look, I can’t deal with this right now. I’ll be right back! Don’t be an idiot!” She exclaimed before soaring back into the sky to fight the robot, fists glowing in green fire. 

 

Billy meanwhile just sat there in shock. His mind reeling, trying to replay the last two minutes of his life. He went to run a hand through his hair, but then a hiss of pain escaped his lips. The boy glanced down and was reminded of the burns on his arms, he groaned. He really regretted not bringing a jacket with him. 

 

The sounds of a battle could be heard from where he sat. Billy pondered on whether or not he should go check it out, but the girl’s scolding came back to him. He was already injured enough and he knew that the Vasquez’s wouldn’t appreciate it when he came back home with burns and scratches, so he sat there, bouncing his leg. 

 

It didn’t actually take long, the battle was over a lot faster than he would’ve thought. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he wasn’t in the way. 

 

Billy could hear Skulker shouting some unintelligible thing before there was a great big flash of white and silence. That piqued the Champion’s interest. What was that? Did it have something to do with the girl? Did she destroy him or send him away? What else could she do that he didn’t see on the security tape?

 

He saw her fly towards him, in all the glory of her white aura, and touch down right in front of him, clipping a soup thermos to her belt. Billy stood up and crossed his arms, he wanted answers and he was gonna get them. 

 

“Whew! Glad that’s over.” Glowing Girl said. “Now, onto business.” She took a deep breath. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE BILLY!?” 

 

Billy stared at the girl, whom he thought he had never seen in his life. But now he was rethinking all of his life decisions. 

 

“That was so stupid and dangerous! And I know you can take care of yourself just fine, but still! You could’ve been hurt and what would I have done then? I can’t live with that on my conscious!” 

 

He stared at the girl, squinting as he looked at her features, there was something familiar about her, but it was too off. Like when you have a dream and you can remember it so clearly, but as soon as you wake up, it’s memory is muddled. He had to know her from somewhere because clearly, she knew him. He had so many questions to ask, but first things first, he had know….

 

“How do you know my name?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO! What a chapter. I loved writing this for you guys. Also.... 
> 
> arae: female spirit of curses  
> eudaemon: angelic/kind spirit
> 
> i figured that a majority of the Wisdom of Solomon would have information on ancient Greek monsters and creatures, which is why it wouldnt have any information on Ghost Zone ghosts. Because the Ghost Zone just came up like a couple of years ago. 
> 
> Also, if it wasn't apparent enough, Dani tripped because her foot turned intangible, she was so tired. Im sorry if that wasnt clear, but it WAS from Billy's POV. 
> 
> Till next time!!


End file.
